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Congregation Netivot Shalom Preschool seeks to create a stimulating and enriching educational environment for each and every child. We are devoted to helping children learn socialization skills, building their self-confidence and teaching them the preliminary skills to explore and experience the world independently from their parents. In addition, we seek to ignite a spark in each child to lay claim to her or his Jewish heritage and commit him or her to a lifetime passion for learning.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Another wonderful week with Judith at our Kitah, the kids have enjoyed having her with us. She sang many wonderful songs with us that you might already hear at home. This week’s favorite was the popcorn song. She also sang ‘everybody do this’ and ’the apple tree’.

We’ve been busy this week with Purim song and dance, measuring with our measuring tape, hiding in big cardboard boxes, feeding Rena, playing with babies, making food, making cakes in the sand box, jumping on the trampoline and water play.

Here’s some highlights:

On Monday played with pom moms, egg crates and tongs. We counted and sorted them in many different ways. Out in the yard we made red bubbles in sensory table.

On Tuesday we used liquid paints with droppers on absorbent paper. We each had our own color and we learned to trade with our friends for another color “would you like to trade with me” The kids created very colorful art. Melita joined us later own and shared stories and Purim songs. Outside we played with wooden blocks and cones.

We’ve been enjoying our wooden boat (fits 4 kids at a time). We’ve been rocking it and singing “Na ad Ned” which is a rocking song in hebrew.

On Wednesday Menachem came to sing with us. We sang some Purim songs and off course the ‘ol favorite the Rabbi and the whistling child song. We also played with play dough and combinations with small blocks. We’ve noticed how they form the shape of the blocks when you press them in.

On Thursday our artistic sensory exploration was trays of shaving cream with liquid colors using droppers. Outside some of us experimented with face paint in front of the mirror and again rocking our boat.

Friday Challah making is always exciting but on this Friday we had another exciting celebration. Matthew is turning 3 on Sunday so we had a lovely celebration at our Kitah. His family brought delicious treats to eat and Kazoo’s for the kids to make some noise. We were happy to send them home with them. Enjoy!!

Friday, February 27, 2015

We had a fun and educational week learning about Purim. We made masks using different art media and techniques over several days. We made and played with groggers. We made Purim sock puppets and watched many children driven puppet shows and purimspiels. Using the puppet theater, the children took turns telling the purim story while the other children sat in the audience. We read "a Purim Poem" by Rena Dorph. This book was illustrated by our preschool children who are now in 3rd grade. In book club, with the older children, we read "Raisel's Riddle" which is a Purim Cinderella story.

We also did Havdallah on Monday.

We did dot paintings after reading "the Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds.

We went on a fabulous field trip to hear stories with Nora - then we had a surprise stop at the park which was wonderful. We want to remind parents to sign up for volunteering to come to the park so we can make it a regular Thursday event! The list is on the door for the rest of the year.

Ofra had been eating yellow grapefruit for lunch. She brought 2 to share on Wednesday.

We had lots of magnet play, exploring how they attract and repel.

We played with stones and wooden blocks in the yard- we made lots of roads!

Next week we look forward to Judy returning, but we are very grateful to Ofra for helping in our kitah, and to Vered and all the Nachshonim children for sharing her with us!

Friday, February 20, 2015

Another wonderful week at our Kitah. This week we’ve the pleasure of having Judith with us in the kitah and she will be with us again next week until Ofra returns the week after. The kids love the crocodile counting game/song she sings with them. They all go silent as soon as she starts and then they all jump in with the loudest sound they can make.

On Tuesday we carried on working on our communal art piece that we’ve started last week. On Wednesday we hung it on our wall. You can see it hanging on your right as you walk in. It’s very avant-garde.

On Wednesday we also enjoyed Diana, Oliver’s 'nonny’ (grandma). She had the kids captivated with a lot of books she brought with her. All time favorite is the “The big hungry bear”.

We’ve been enjoying a mud bath outside (hence the muddy clothes in your kids cubbies. Sorry about that, but once you see the joy on their faces when immersed in mud, you'll understand it’s so worth another load of washing.

Menachem came to visit and sang songs with us. We took out our musical instruments and made a whole lot of noise.

We made individual art paintings with pastels and water colors. We’ve noticed that the water colors doesn’t mix with the pastels.

At our pretend play area we enjoyed an apron and a chefs hat that Vered brought from home for us. It inspired the kids to start a pizza restaurant. They all worked together so beautifully. Some were cooking, some were serving and some were the guests. It was all self initiated and directed by the kids. A complete delight.

Outside we sang a lot of songs with Judith while jumping on the trampoline or when we were rolling on the mats.

At circle time we read an interactive book called Coco the Croc. It has a puppet attached to it. The kids enjoyed it so much we had to read it again at circle time the next day.

We’ve been reading and talking about Purim. We also danced to some Hebrew Purim songs at circle time.

Today we made our challah’s for Shabbat. We practice counting the raisins, identifying our names, the letters and the phonetic sounds associated with it.

We said goodbye to Anna and welcomed Inbal into our kitah. We were also joined by Ofra, which is a great treat for all the children.

On Tuesday, we went to Urban Adamah. Thank you to all the parent drivers and chaperones. We fed the chickens and the goats. We collected eggs. We planted peas. We picked peas and tasted kale. We had a picnic under the tent. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

We also traced our arms to make trees. We learned the word Pereg - poppy seed.

We talked about what makes us happy. We made happy books and we did happy dances.

This week ...

We made bead and wire sculptures over several days. We explored many new nature items that Inbal brought to the kitah. We also harvested and tasted our first crop of lettuces - then we said a shehechiyanu.

We welcomed in the month of Adar! We started telling the Purim story and reading Purim books.

In book club we finished reading Ellen's Lion and started reading Danny Loves a Holiday by Sidney Taylor.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

As promised we made Lemonade from the lemons of Lauren’s tree. The kids were rolling them and juicing them. We poured it into a big jug and added honey. We then drank it for two days at our snack time.

While we were playing outside we started a communal painting. We used pastels colors. We brought it in and every day we stuck pieces of paper and strings which we cut with scisors We used glue, glue sticks and paint. Some of us had more paper stuck to our fingers than on the paper.

On Tuesday we made finger paintings in the Kitah, a great sensory activity.

We filled up our outside sensory table with blue bubbles and put a lot of our ocean animals in.

Melita came to sing songs with us. We danced and used our musical instruments.

Colin substituted for us on Thursday. He brought his Mandolin, he played for us and let us all try it. We noticed how similar it is to guitar.

Vered read us a new book in Hebrew she brought from home “Haachbar ve HaTapuach” (the mouse and the apple). It’s a fun book about a mouse practicing being patient. We ended up liking it so much that we read it again a couple of days later.

Ofra brought her dehydrator machine from home. We cut a whole bunch of fruit: Strawberries (tootim), Bananas (Bananot) and Apples (Tapuchim). Ofra had a great idea to cut our bananas with an egg slicer. That worked really well. We placed the cut up fruit gently and neatly on the dehydrator trays and left them overnight.

On Thursday the dried fruit was ready. We took it of the trays and ate it all. It was a big hit and we’re thinking of doing it again soon.

Monday, February 9, 2015

As you know we have had a busy few weeks with many new faces
in the kitah.Through it all we have
continued to have fun and explore many themes especially Tu B’Shvat.

We collected leaves, we did leaf art, we did tree art, we
made a list of how trees help us.Many
of these are on display in the kitah.We
started indoor gardening and have continued with our outdoor gardening.We are preparing to sprout seeds on our chia
cat. We really enjoyed exploring a print
of a tree cross section given to us by Pamela Waxman; it shows the many layers
of the tree.We counted 110 which means
the tree was that many years old.

Last week we went to the library.Thank you to Liora and Jenni who were able to come with
us.This week in particular we had many
special events;

On Monday, Liora Brosbe came in to share books with us about
babies and how they grow since both she and Anna are expecting little on just one month.On Tuesday we
celebrated Tu bshvat with Melita by singing lots of tree songs.On Wednesday, we had a Tu bshvat seder in the
upstairs art room, with tablecloths that children made, table settings and a
ceremony led by Jennifer Kirsch.She
taught us how to become the different parts of a tree.We tasted and blessed tree fruits some that
we can eat the inside or outside or both!We had grape juice, coconut, pears, dates and we smelled citrus and
cinnamon.Later that day, Menachem came
to talk to us about this week’s parashah Yitro.On Thursday, Willa Mamet, a local artist and congregant, came to visit
our kitah. She shared with us her collection of wooden Judaic art, some
completed, but a lot in progress.We
looked at her mezzuzot cases that she carves with a shin from lots of different
woods that she collects including persimmon, cherry, plum, Manzanita, willow
and others..

In addition to all these special events, we had lots of
emergent play including dinosaur bone hunting, pirate ships, building with
giant cardboard blocks, play on our new trampoline and Friday rainy day fun.

We welcomed two new teachers Rinat and Inbal and enjoyed the
company of substitutes Colin, and Sarah.We also celebrated Fiona’s 5th birthday.

We made get well cards for Judy and we truly wish her a
R’fuah Shleimah!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Please excuse us for not keeping you posted the last couple of weeks. Ofra does not have internet at home right now so sending an email is not quite the same.We celebrated Tu B'Shvat this week and we had been doing a lot of learning and explorations of trees and things that grow. Here are the highlights of the last two weeks.

-Vered is home from Israel! We are so happy to have her back in the kitah.

Tu B'Shvat activities:-We continued to water our wheatgrass as it got taller and taller. We gave Rena the wheatgrass we have grown and we watched her eat it, she lets us pet her when she is eating. She loves the wheatgrass, she eats like a lawn mower. We had a good look at the roots that grew from our wheatgrass and fill the little container with soil that they are growing in. We talked about how the other plants we have indoors and in the play yard have roots too, in the earth where we can't see them. -We have some books about trees on our bookshelf including "Cheebook Dov"/Bear Hug, a story about a tree hugging bear in Hebrew. We also have "The Carrot Seed", "A Tree is Nice", "The Grand Old Tree", and more. -We sang lots of Tu B'Shvat songs and songs about trees with Melita and during the week at mealtimes and circle time. -We noticed that the Nevonim have planted many things in the garden out in the play yard.-The children helped build a tree sculpture. We used our large branch that used to hang on the wall and other sticks, twigs and leaves we found outside.-We then went upstairs to get stuffies from our storage, we found all of the toy animals that live in trees. The children are playing with the animals in our tree sculpture.-We are playing with our new woodblocks made from beautifully polished pieces of wood and branches.-On Tu B'Shvat, we looked at all kinds of wood. Wood blocks, wooden bowls, driftwood etc. We compared them and noticed that the bark looks different on different trees.-Last week we germinated and sprouted sunflower seeds so that we could eat them ourselves and feed them to Rena. Rena chose not to eat the sunflower greens we offered her, maybe she doesn't like the way they smell. We cut the sunflower sprouts at the base near the soil, washed them and we ate them at snack time. -This Wednesday, we went on a field trip to Strawberry Creek Park and to Ofra's community garden. We had Mimi, Eliana's mom and Becca, Oliver's mom join us. Todah Rabah/Thank you very much for your assistance. The children ate kale. parsley and lettuce.-We observe the limonim/ lemons that Lauren brought into school from her lemon tree. Some where gigantic and some were very small.-We are sprouting another round of wheatgrass for Rena to enjoy.

-Giant Legos in the play yard.

-We made and played with Ooblek.

-We are playing with our insect toys. There are many, many of them. We also have insect flashcards in the science area for us to learn and compare.

-Oliver's Savta/grandma Diana has come to spend Fridays with us in the kitah. She brought some books to share!

-We enjoyed a very special puppet show last week. Danielle the puppeteer showed us how his shadow puppets work and he told us three stories with his puppets.

-We had Nevonim visitors join us for play time outdoors and for lunch this week.

-We put together our brand new trampoline! The children practiced taking turns jumping on it.

Next week we will be able to tell you about the limonada/lemonade we are planning on making!Shabbat Shalom,Ofra and Vered